Chelsea Sokolow

LCSW

My approach to clinical work is deeply humanistic in nature, and centered around people’s innate agency, autonomy, and capacity for self-determination. I view therapy as an opportunity for intentional collaboration, skill-building and the sharing of resources and helpful tools within a deeply supportive space. I recognize that individuals’ experiences are deeply rooted in the social, cultural, historical, and political context, and I view personal healing and growth as intimately intertwined with building a more just and equitable world on a systems level. I believe that everyone is doing their absolute best with the tools, resources, skills and knowledge that they have available to them. And that everyone deserves radical kindness and fierce support - no matter what they are facing or have experienced. My goal is to always meet you where you are and to move forward from a harm reductionist perspective. All growth is incremental, and in therapy we will honor whatever pace and path your own growth process takes! I believe we all have the right to joy, rest, connection, love, and community care and I’d like to help you access those things in your own life. I want to help support you in building a life that feels nourishing - however you define that for yourself! Nobody knows your life better than you do!

I strive to create room for people to be exactly who and how they are, to dismantle shame and stigma, and to safely muck around in the messiness, vulnerability and exquisite beauty and difficulty of being human. In therapy together we will create a space that is for you and just for you, a therapeutic container that holds you with care, allows you to be both strong and soft, and asks you to be brave. I know how challenging it can be to navigate the systems we live in, and how hard it can be to carve out space for most tender and closely held parts of ourselves. Let’s make space for you. I work well with people who hold identities and experiences that are non-normative. Maybe you feel always a little different from those around you, or like other people just can’t really relate to your experience. Maybe you experience a feeling of internal or external conflict over the parts of the your identity and experiences that feel at odds with how it feels like they’re “supposed to be”. I take great joy in supporting those I work with in the unique challenge of navigating opposing aspects of the human experience that sit up against each other and create tension. Personal pain and positional privilege. Shame and accountability. Desire and fear. Freedom and responsibility. Heartbreak and Joy.